No surprise, but the post-practice interviews today all focused on Chicago with a little more specificity than the general questions yesterday.

The Blackhawks can pretty much match the star power of the Sharks, what with guys like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and and Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook in the lineup.

But there’s also this guy there with a name where the spelling and pronunciation are only remotely connected who has been a force and I asked around about him.

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Among the answers:

Douglas Murray on facing the Blackhawks’ burly Dustin Byfuglien (that’s pronounced BUFF-lin if you’ve only been following Chicago on TV or radio and were wondering):

“He’s a heavy player that plays heavy,” Murray said of the forward who’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 257 pounds. “Some guys are heavy but don’t play heavy.

“When he goes to the net we have to treat him the way we treated Holmstrom and Bertuzzi when they drive the net. Today’s rules, you can’t get into a cross-checking match with him and you have to leave him to Nabby and make sure we get a stick on any type of rebound or clear him out once the shot comes.”

Rob Blake on facing Byfuglien:

“He really stepped up that last series, took a big net presence with that line. Kane and Toews like to hold pucks and they needed a big net presence. He’s a big guy that can get to where he wants to go and has a knack for scoring.

Blake compared Byfuglien to Detroit’s Todd Bertuzzi.

“They’re similar in that they have good hands. They’re big and they can get to the net, but when they get the puck they can do things with it. He showed it by getting a hat trick in Vancovuer and getting a goal against last night.”

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****Toews, Keith and Seabrook were all on Team Canada, which means Joe Thornton and three other Sharks will be facing guys they played with and practiced with.

“We had a room with five people and Johnny was in a room with me,” Thornton said. “Obviously I got to know Dunc and Seabs as well. They’re elite players.”

And Toews in particular?

“He just works hard every shift,” Thornton said. “He’s very skilled and is really turning into a complete player. Whoever’s line goes against him is going to have a real challenge because he’s playing pretty good right now.”

Marleau said playing with those guys in February should be beneficial three months later in the playoffs.

“You know they’re going to compete and bring their best game so that makes you on your toes and make sure you’re going to be ready,” Marleau said.

****Understandably, the Sharks all said that their regular season record against Chicago — San Jose was 1-1-2 — is meaningless at this point. The thing is, they could point to the Detroit series as evidence they weren’t just saying the right thing.

McLellan did acknowledge that “we didn’t play very well against Chicago and we’ll have to play a lot better to win.”

He also indicated that the Sharks haven’t forgotten that in the one game they were blown out by the Blackhawks, Chicago scored three short-handed goals en route to a 7-2 victory.

“They scored three in our building one night alone ‘and really put us behind the eight ball,” the coach said. “We’ll have a sense or awareness that they’re prepared to attack on the penalty kill. It comes down to managing shift length a little bit and certainly the puck.”

****Everybody skated at practice today with one exception. Jed Ortmeyer is still nursing a lower body injury and wasn’t on the ice.

Also, the eight Worcester Sharks have arrived and though they worked out off the ice, they didn’t lace ’em up today. That’ll happen this week, though they won’t be practicing with the Western Conference finalists.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Interesting “Melrose Line” on ESPN – both Barry & EJ Hradek pick the B-Hawks – Melrose in 6, Hradek in 7, then backs off as Shark fans are already on his case. The main reason that they both seem to like the B-Hawks is special teams and that Niemi has played well. During the season they both had reservations about the B-Hawks because their goaltending was an unkown. During the segement they both agreed that Nabokov can be great and also can stink. Melrose made point about letting in soft goal can kill a team – Couture’s goal and Detroit’s reaction cited. Here’s the link.

Interesting that Melrose thinks that this will be a hard-hitting but clean series, as opposed to how Vancouver plays – chippy and cheap.

joe

Hawks in 6 or less. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chicago sweeps San Jose.

redlight

No Sweeps, your out of your mind, but I’m sure someone will give you good odds! Thank God an afternoon game, only have to stay up late for 1 game during the workweek.

redlight

TOM> there media, very seldom do they have a firm prediction, and if they do, they always have a back door excuse. I’m surprise with Melrose becasue he hates the Blackhawks. He was calling for a suspention on Hossa for the 5 minute major at the end of a game against Nashville. I listened to the other guys last night in the Montreal, Pittsburgh series. When Pittsburgh scored the 2nd goal, they were high on Pittsburgh, halfway through the 3rd they were praising Montreal. There Politicians.

California Hawks Fan

You will all know how to pronounce Byfuglien when the series is over. Going to be a great series. It will probably come down to the goaltenders and faceoffs in the end.

redlight

Hey, there is a “for sale” listing on Craigs List listing for Roberto Luango

hit em’ hard and hit em’ often……
that is what i am painting on my wall for this series.

congrats Canadiens! good on ya.

California Hawks Fan

Oregon Rachel says”One thing that the most of the Hawks fans fail to mention when they boast about their series victory over the Canucks: the Canucks defense was riddled with injuries.”…. Yes but who caused those injuries? The dinosaur Rob Blake had better take his Geritol.

redlight

The hawks beat vancouver up and down in every catagory of the game. one could argue that soupys playing injured, which he is, plus the hawks played without johnnson the guy they traded barker for. the hawks handled vancouver easily, but in many cases vancouver didn’t do much to help themselves.

redlight

this series will not be that easy, plus Blake is a lot like Lidstrom and Rafalski, hes a smart veteran.

Nick

So, wait, he said Nabokov has shown some stinkers, but didn’t say the same about Niemi? Was he paying attention when Niemi won the starter job after the Olympics?

California Hawks Fan

Reboundo Luongo… NOw thats freaking hilarious.

California Hawks Fan

All I can remember is when Nabi stopped like 45 of 47 shots to pull out a 3-2 at the UC. Huet stopped 14-17. Lets go Niemi.

Nick

Hate to break it to you, but Campbell probably isn’t playing injured–he’s not that selfless.

The reason we boo him here isn’t as simple as he signed elsewhere. It’s because he made up reasons to sign elsewhere–BS reasons like “I want to be near my family.” If he’d gone right out and said “I want to be paid” then that’d be okay–we wouldn’t like him, but we probably wouldn’t boo. At least the he’d have been honest.

So, yeah, he said he wanted to be near his family, but amongst the places he gave serious consideration? Atlanta Thrashers. Really? That’s close enough to your family that you’d consider it? He was reportedly also looking at Toronto–even closer than Chicago–but seems to have ignored them. Wonder why…

So there’s that. But then there’s also the fact that during his playoff run here he simply vanished because he was too scared of being injured, lest it hurt his bank account in the free agent market. Even that would be alright, we forgive folks for vanishing during the playoffs–it’s practically a requirement to play here–except that the one time he shows up? The one time he does something of note? It’s taking a bonehead penalty that leads to the eliminating goal by Dallas in game 6.

He’s overpaid, selfish, and not all that good to begin with. If he’s playing injured, I’d eat my hat.

Nick

Funny, California Hawks Fan, all I remember is that that was the regular season and doesn’t matter for dick 🙂

California Hawks Fan

You dont recover completely from a broken clavical in 6 weeks. He is still hurting.

California Hawks Fan

Dick? How Philadelphia of you. Cmon have a bit of class

O’Puck

No truth to the rumor that the Goalies in this series have to change their masks to include pictures of Sid & Alex.

Please wake me when this series starts.
GSDI

Capitalist Infidel

Gotta like the speed of the Hawks over the size of the Sharks. With so many of the Shark D-men over 30 that should make Kane, Toews, Sharp, Hossa, Versteeg, and Bolland’s jobs easier.

Hawks in 6

Anti-Trash-Talker

vonmerpf (May 12th, 2010 at 3:40 pm)

Why don’t you go take a look at your opposing teams’ Facebook pages before you throw stones regarding internet trolls? All teams have their share of obnoxious fans, including San Jose – I know because I have to deal with you jamokes at Staples several times a season.

Great original joke about midwesterners. Wow, we sure do wish we all had your comedy chops.

redlight

NICK> there you go again spouting out…..remember this quote you made!!!! your such a poet!!

At no point do I delusion myself by referring to “we” when I mean “they.” The Sharks are the Sharks and the Blackhawks are the Blackhawks. I am me and you are you. Never betwixt the twain shall meet.

OMG thats f@#$% funny!!!!!!

Nick

Uhhh… I’m glad you liked it?

redlight

CALIFORNIAHAWKSFAN>Pay no mind to Nick, he’s one of those guys that recites poetry, sits behind a computer all day reading stats, but probably never put on a pair of hockey skates in his life, maybe figure skates! And he’s going to talk about hockey injuries. He’s probably never had to deal with anything more than numb finger tips. Read his poetry to me from yesterday……f#$%^ HALARIOUS!

redlight

getting back to hockey and away from the sarcasim. there is no room for anyone to rip a player apart except for a poor performance on your own team. often when people rip players, like Byfuglien or Campbell, it’s jealosy becasue they wish they had them on their team. I will admit, that Campbell does goe out of his way to avoid hits, and he probably does wear lace under his uniform. But, we sorely missed his speed and ability to join the rush the final 20 games of the season. That showed his worth, at least to our team.

SoCalSharkie

I want Byfuglien on my team. But no thanks to Soupy. First hit, he crumbles like an empty can.

California Hawks Fan

Campbell has a broken clavical. Does anyone know what that feels like. When Ovechkin put him down (cheapshop as was Hossa’s) It was said he would be DONE. 6 weeks back. He is no puss. He is not the puck control guy that #2 or #7 is but he gives them another solid blue liner with Seabrook, Keith, Sopel and Hjalmarsson are not in there. How many teams would like #51 as # 5? MANY. He is certainly better than Demers and Huskins. Id rather see him get ice time over Sopel as you never know when that dude is going to turn it over. Ever since moving here I have rooted for the Sharks when they doont play the Hawks. This is going to be one for the ages but if NoShow Joe plays his normal role the Hawks will win in 6.

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